Tuesday, 7 February, 2012

Sick of stats on unemployment, the GDP or stock market? Then meet the alternative economic indicators. Some are sensible, some are zany, and some are even backed by real data. Other “indicators” are misleading, even downright dangerous.

When everybody exploits a common resource without limit, we get the tragedy of the commons: Benefiting the individuals burns through the resource. A new economic strategy game, based on how animals and plants grow, suggests that communication helps players allocate the resource and still take home a bigger harvest.

The Titanic sank in 1912, the Lusitania sank in 1915. In each case, about 32 percent of passengers survived. But women and children did much better on Titanic, which took 160 minutes to slide underwater, than on Lusitania, which went down in 18 minutes. Ditto for rich people. Why?

Climate scientists worry about feedbacks, glacial melting, sea level rise, using tax policy to slow warming, and the complexity of climate science. Is it realistic to base our economy on endless growth? What does human behavior tell us about dealing with warming?

Researchers in positive psychology find that giving is better than receiving, that social relationships are key, and that money can – in some circumstances – buy some happiness.

The “official” arbiter of recessions is the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a private, nonprofit research organization, comprising a number of top economists, according to Stephen Malpezzi, Lorin and Marjorie Tiefenthaler Professor of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics at the Wisconsin School of Business. Actually, NBER doesn’t officially use the word “recession” as [...]

Obama decides that current and new grant applications at the National Institutes of Health are an effective economic stimulus. People get jobs. Inventions get invented. What’s not to like?

Carbon tax never even got considered, but it may produce more carbon control at a lower price. Comparing carbon tax with cap and trade…

Study shows the wisdom of allowing fish stocks to recover. Production is higher, but costs are lower. What would it take to bring economic and environmental sanity to the fishing industry?

By marketing to billions of lower-income people, business can do well by doing good: Affordable green goods for “the base of the pyramid” could improve lives and cut environmental damage. Could this work?